Lead: Our Last Crusade season 3 is officially in production, with director Yuki Inaba, character designer Kaori Yoshikawa and Season 2’s main voice cast returning, Kadokawa’s Fantasia Bunko event revealed on Sunday, October 25.
What happened
The announcement came during Kadokawa’s Fantasia Bunko online fan festival. English outlets render the event name differently: Anime News Network calls it the “Fantasia Bunko Grand Thanksgiving Festival 2026 Online,” while Crunchyroll News uses “Fantasia Bunko Great Appreciation 2026 Online.” The anime’s official X account and website followed with a teaser visual, a staff and cast list, a story introduction and a comment from original author Kei Sazane.
Inaba returns as both director and series composition writer. Yoshikawa again adapts Ao Nekonabe’s original character designs for animation, and Studio Palette and SILVER LINK. share production duties, the same setup as Season 2. The returning cast is led by Yūsuke Kobayashi as Iska and Sora Amamiya as Aliceliese Lou Nebulis IX, with Nao Shiraki (Mismis Klass), Kaori Ishihara (Nene Alkastone), Shunichi Toki (Jhin Syulargun), Yumiri Hanamori (Rin Vispose) and Azumi Waki (Sisbell Lou Nebulis IX).
The teaser visual, drawn by Yoshikawa, carries a tagline about an operation to infiltrate the Empire. Translations vary here too: Crunchyroll News gives it as “Operation: Infiltrate the Empire, commence!” while Anime.com uses a slightly different wording. According to the official introduction, the new season sends the cast deeper into enemy territory and has Iska and Aliceliese uncover a buried history from a century earlier.
Why Our Last Crusade season 3 matters
This is a franchise that has tested its fans’ patience. The first season, animated by SILVER LINK., ran for 12 episodes from October to December 2020. Season 2 was first slated for 2023, slipped to July 2024, then stopped after four episodes that August so the staff could protect quality. It finally restarted from episode one in April 2025. A third season announced with the same leadership suggests the production committee trusts the team that rebuilt the second season, rather than treating that rocky run as a reason to walk away.
The source material gives the sequel plenty to work with. Sazane and Nekonabe’s light novel series has been running under Fantasia Bunko since May 2017 and has 16 volumes in print, with a Secret File spinoff line alongside it. Yen Press publishes both the novels and the manga adaptation in English, so international viewers can read ahead.
The premise, a star-crossed romance between the Empire’s youngest top knight and a princess of the rival magic-wielding nation, is familiar light novel territory. Its appeal has always come from the chemistry between Kobayashi’s Iska and Amamiya’s Aliceliese, and keeping that pairing intact was the most important thing this announcement needed to get right.
What we know vs what is rumored
- Confirmed: a third TV season is in production, with Yuki Inaba directing and writing series composition, Kaori Yoshikawa on character designs, and Studio Palette and SILVER LINK. animating.
- Confirmed: all seven announced Season 2 cast members return, and a teaser visual is out.
- Unconfirmed: a premiere date or season window, episode count, and which streamer will carry Season 3 outside Japan. Crunchyroll streams the first two seasons, but no one has announced a deal for the new one.
What happens next
The next milestones are a teaser trailer and a broadcast window, followed by streaming news. Given how Season 2 went, fans should expect the staff to take its time before locking a date, and a 2027 premiere would not be surprising, although nothing has been announced. Until then, Seasons 1 and 2 are available on Crunchyroll with an English dub, and the light novels continue in English from Yen Press.
Sources: Anime News Network — Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World Anime Gets 3rd Season, Reveals Returning Cast & Staff; Crunchyroll News — Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World Season 3 Anime Announced; Anime.com — Our Last Crusade Anime Season 3 Announced With Returning Cast